The question wasn’t meant to be about Manuel’s age, although he is in the final year of his contract and the second-oldest active manager behind only 70-year-old Davey Johnson, manager of the Nationals, whose youthful drive to the National League East title in 2012 has served as a contrasting example for those who ask questions about the Phillies’ age.

Like Manuel, who has built an impressive managerial legacy after a series of health issues nearly killed him more than a decade ago, the Phillies are trying to prove that just because their collective health issues helped torpedo their five-year reign as divisional champions, reports of their demise are premature.

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Just as the manager believes his future is robust thanks to a healthy heart, he carries the same confidence about his team because its heart — the heart of the order — has recovered from what ailed it last season.

Chase Utley and Ryan Howard had differing maladies, but the same destiny in 2012, missing most of the first half of the season with leg injuries, then struggling with their rusty swings when they returned.

This spring, the Phillies’ Nos. 3 and 4 hitters are back, and although Utley might not cover as much ground defensively on his aging knees and Howard still has a hitch in his gallop from reconstructive Achilles’ tendon surgery, both had encouraging Grapefruit League performances.

After falling 14 games under .500 last season while Utley and Howard were out, Manuel knows the consequences of not having them in the lineup regularly. But he doesn’t think Father Time is eroding their skills even when they are fit to take the field.

“I see players who are 32, 33, 34 and are still very productive players,” Manuel said. “I think people forget that we have a lot of core players, and that they might be getting some age on them, but they also know how to win and have been there before.

“We’ve been in tough games. We’ve played a lot of one-run games over the years, a lot of games where we’ve had to come back and win.”

The Phillies believe there is room at the top for teams their age, and although the Giants last season had a young lineup on their way to the 2012 title, San Francisco’s 2010 World Series squad had seven of its top nine plate-appearance leaders 30 and older, while the 2011 Cardinals had five of its top seven position players 31 or older.

The Phillies have some younger players in the outfield, with Domonic Brown and Ben Revere both 25, and Delmon Young 27. Revere, acquired from the Twins this winter, so impressed Manuel with his talents that he decided to make room at the top of the order for him and move Jimmy Rollins into the No. 2 spot. Brown had a huge spring and seems poised for a breakout season after a slow start to his big-league career.

“I think he’s come a long way,” Manuel said of Brown. “I think he’s learned a lot about the major leagues since he’s been up a couple of times.

“I think he’s earned that right (to be an everyday player).”

Manuel isn’t seeking career years out of them or his veterans. What he is seeking is the same collection of events that helped make 2008 a championship season.

That year, the Phillies did not have the best regular-season record in the majors, or even the NL. They did not receive a career year from Rollins, Utley or Howard — or any starting position player, for that matter. Good seasons, yes. But career years, no.

Nor did the Phils get a career year from any starting pitcher. In fact, 49 of the 162 regular-season games were started by pitchers with ERAs of 5.49 or greater that season.

Even Brad Lidge, who didn’t blow a save opportunity in 41 chances and could be argued to be the only member of the club who had a career year, had been statistically more dominating a few seasons earlier.

The Phillies in 2008 did not get a wild boost from free agency. The biggest name they got was Geoff Jenkins, and he was a bust. The rest of the free-agency money was spent on a No. 7 hitter (Pedro Feliz), a left-handed specialist (J.C. Romero) and a utility player who got four postseason plate appearances (So Taguchi).

The Phillies that season were not widely considered the favorites to win the division, let alone the World Series. A visit to the preseason predictions by ESPN’s 19-member panel prior to the 2008 season showed two with the Phillies as their National League East champions, and exactly zero had them even participating in the World Series.

In the four seasons after that, the Phillies had plenty of prognosticators on their side.

Even prior to last season, when the absences of Howard and Utley clearly were going to be extended and significant, the ESPN “experts” (which, like almost everything else at that place, had bloated up to 50 members) still hung their hats on the Phils, with 14 of them having them in the World Series and five of them saying they’d win it.

The Phillies went 81-81 in 2012, and combined with the emergence of the Nationals last season and the bravado of the Braves’ front office over the winter, the Phils have been pushed back to a forgotten team in 2013. Of ESPN’s list of 43 experts (downsizing in Bristol, Conn.?), the Phillies have managed just two lonely wild-card selections.

What the Phillies did get in 2008 were 30 or more starts from four pitchers, 130-plus games from every noncatching position and more than 70 appearances from their top four relievers.

Put simply, they were healthy. Yes, there were a handful of disabled-list stints. But they lasted less than a month and were manageable.

This year the Phillies are looking for the same. Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee have been stalwarts, and both had strong, smooth springs. Kyle Kendrick and John Lannan have what teams want from the back of their rotations: dependability and durability. Roy Halladay’s spring training did little to calm the nerves from last season, even though he insists he’s in far better physical shape.

The bullpen adds Mike Adams, who has had his share of injury woes in his career, but is simply the best set-up reliever in the game when he’s right. Chad Durbin, one of those 2008 bullpen workhorses, is back. And the Phils would like either Antonio Bastardo or Phillippe Aumont to have their electric arms mature into a valuable shutdown guy in the seventh and eighth innings, when needed.

But mostly, this is a team whose destiny weighs on the ability of the lineup to regain some of the dependability it lost to injuries last season. John Mayberry Jr. cannot be second on the team in plate appearances, as he was last season. Anyone of Ty Wigginton’s ilk cannot have as many plate appearances as Chase Utley and more than Ryan Howard, which happened in 2012.

“It’s different from last year because of all the injuries we had,” Manuel said. “I can evaluate our team. ... I like our team. I like what Ben brings to us. Utley and Howard have been healthy. I like our starting pitching. We set up good.”

That’s why when Manuel speaks about his team, he doesn’t put the onus on any individual. He knows that in order to be able to keep stride with Washington and Atlanta, it requires a huge team effort more than someone having a career season.

“We can be a playoff team. I look at this team, and I say we can be a playoff team,” Manuel said. “But I also look at this team and say we have to play the best baseball we’ve ever played.

“The team that plays the best over 162 games is going to win. So if we play (our best ball), we are going to win our division.”